The Case of The Missing Ex
by BobWhite
Summary: Deeks' had a fiancee who went missing. Full summary inside. Pls R&R 2 find out more.
1. An Engagement Ends

**Full Summary:**

Deeks was engaged to a woman nearly two years before he met the NCIS team. But when she mysteriously disappeared, Deeks was forced to move on without her. He has been working her case by himself for as long as he can remember. What happens when a case the NCIS team is working on becomes a direct link to Deeks' missing fiancé? Will he allow the others to help him find her? And why did she go missing in the first place? Did it have something to do with her family?

**An Engagement Ends:**

**Five Years Ago:**

Deeks and Jenna were great together. They were always on the waves, when the two weren't working. They had a great time together. They had fallen in love after the second date and she had even moved in with him. She loved being around a guy that seemed to understand her entire being, not just the part men wanted a girl for. She was always making jokes, which had always been a defense mechanism for her. He'd picked it up from her, the joke making. It was one of the things he loved about her.

He'd proposed six months into their dating. She'd said yes and to celebrate, they had gone surfing for the entire day. They set the day of the wedding for New Year's Day. She was so excited to be getting married. Jenna was a surfing instructor, which was how the two had met in the first place. She was good at what she put her mind to and the fact that Deeks shared her passion for Surfing was the icing on the cake.

But as the wedding drew closer and as the two got more and more into spending the rest of their lives together, something changed in Jenna. Though Deeks couldn't pin point exactly what was wrong, he knew it had something to do with the fact that she was going to have no one at the wedding that she really cared about. Whenever Deeks ever asked her about her family, she told him that they had died when she was very young and she had bounced around foster care since. She told him that she didn't have anyone that she was close enough to from the System to invite. And the fact that the only real friends she had were all of his cop buddies, she just told him to invite them. Besides, most of her clients were kids and she wasn't going to invite them.

One month before the wedding, just before Christmas week, Jenna disappeared. She had packed a bag to go camping by herself before the wedding, something she had done on a few occasions, just to get away from the hub bub of city life. She never came back from the camping trip and when her car was found deserted with her cell and wallet still inside, a search had gone out immediately. They were expecting to find her in some local hospital, but weeks went by with no solid leads as where she might be.

Deeks called off the wedding and boxed everything up from the house that belonged to Jenna. He kept it, just in case she was ever found, but the only thing he kept of hers in plain sight was a picture of the two of them in his wallet so that he would never forget her. He made a copy of the Case file and kept it on his desk at all times in his apartment. Even Monty his dog missed her. She'd been nice to the dog, in fact that was another way he would never forget Jenna. Jenna had picked Monty out of a shelter and named him Monty. Monty was their dog and it would always be their dog.

**Present Day:**

Deeks was a little late getting into work that day. He'd been following a lead from Versey regarding Jenna. The lead had ended up being a dead end. One of their CI's had thought he'd seen her in the streets that week but didn't know if it was her. During the initial investigation, Jenna's picture had been all over the news, on posters stapled to trees and taped to store windows. Not only did the cops want to find her but those that she had taught to surf. His head was still on Jenna when he walked into the bullpen without even a hello.

He sat at his desk and started in on the paperwork that was waiting for him. As far as he knew, there was no case and by the silence in the room, he knew that his not saying hello would sooner or later be talked about by the whole team. He ignored his team, especially Kensi. As much of a partner as Kensi was, she was also someone who had become a confidant for him. He had never told her about Jenna, in fact he had never told any member of the team about Jenna. Jenna was his to look for and he was going to be damned if anyone tried to take the case away from him.

It wasn't until Eric whistled alerting them to the fact that they had a case that he stopped working on his paperwork and with the rest of the team headed up to OPS where Eric, Nell and Hetty were waiting. Hetty said good morning and everyone except Deeks exchanged mornings. They could all see that something was going on inside the Detectives head, but they couldn't figure it out unless he let them in. Eric and Nell went on to introduce Petty officer Jaun Sanchez, killed after being burned alive. The weird thing about this case, according to Nell, was that the Petty Officer had disappeared nearly five years ago. Callen had Eric pull up everyone that went missing around the same time the Petty Officer went missing and the list was extensive. One name stuck out and it was Deeks that finally said something.

When Deeks spoke up about knowing one of the missing, they all looked at him. They were expecting that he'd tell them that it was one of the men that he knew but it turned out that the missing person he knew was a woman. Jenna Spaltan, according to Deeks, had been a surfing instructor. She'd disappeared shortly before Christmas that year. Her fiancé had reported her missing after she failed to come home after a weekend of camping by herself, which was something that was a regular with her. The team didn't understand that this was the reason that he had been late and that Jenna was the one that he had on his mind when he walked into the bullpen that morning. They just thought he had worked the case which would mean he was the lead Detective on the case.

_**More to come in the next chapter…**_

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	2. Jenna Spaltan

**Jenna Spaltan:**

**Five Years Ago:**

It was the best year of my life. I had been teaching some young kids to surf when this guy showed up. He seemed to think that as a girl, I had a harder time surfing then most men did. But as my class moved into the water, and I told them to stay near the beach as I showed them how they were supposed to surf, he seemed to change his mind. I had always been good at surfing, something I had picked up when I was younger, when my family had lived in Florida. We'd always been on the water, something I loved very much.

But as I got older and learned what my family really did to earn the money they gave to me and spent on me, I chose a different life for myself. I packed everything up and moved cross country to live in California, Los Angeles to be specific. I live right off the beach, in a small cabin that let me surf every day. I had all the board a surfer could have and I started up my own business, teaching kids and adults alike to sure. It was easier to teach then it was to talk about my life. Yes, my family is still living in Florida, but as far as I knew, they hadn't known where I had run off to. I guess coming to LA was a way of getting away from my family and hopefully staying away from them.

When my surf class was over, the guy that had been watching walked up to me and introduced himself as Marty Deeks. I told him my name and he asked me if I wanted to get coffee. I told him sure, but that I had to get changed at my house. We walked to my house together and I left him sitting in my living room. She walked back out a few minutes later and the two headed out to the local café and got coffee. They ended up going out that next night and even though she found out that he was a cop, she didn't seem to mind. They melded together almost immediately. They had surfing as a common interest together so it wasn't that weird to hear two different people that barely knew each other talking about their days on the waves.

When he asked her to marry him six months after they started dating, she was ecstatic. She'd said yes almost immediately and hugged him a few times. He'd popped the question one day while they were surfing so he didn't have the ring on him but he'd given it to her shortly after they'd gotten home. He'd been living with her most days on his days off and she would live with him on her days off. It was a mutual relationship. She wasn't ready to give up her house on the beach yet and he wasn't going to pressure her. When they got married, they could figure out which place they wanted to live; his apartment or her beach house.

When she decided to go camping just before Christmas, it wasn't because she really wanted to go. She'd told him that she was going that night and she'd left the next morning. She'd seen someone from her past and hadn't wanted anything to happen to Marty. Jenna didn't know how to tell him about her past, her family since she'd told him that her family was dead. So, in her mind, she was keeping him safe. She made sure it looked like she had been forced off the road and been told to just grab the bag that she had packed. She left her wallet and cell phone in the car and walked off, taking only cash with her. She looked back only once. She had enough cash to start over, somewhere else for the time being and she didn't ever want to forget Marty. She had taken the picture of the two of them out of her wallet and put it in her back pocket.

She hitched out of LA that day, hoping that nobody would follow her or wonder where she was at until she didn't come home from camping. Her Christmas present for Marty with her because she had no way of getting rid of it and it was just one more reminder that she would always have of her first and true love.

**Present Day:**

Jenna was out on her snowmobile, her daughter Hannah in front of her. They'd been having fun in the meadow where she had built her cabin. She'd taken up snowmobiling since they now lived in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It was easier to be out snowmobiling now that she could take her daughter with her. She thought often of Hannah's father, a cop in LA, but knew that if she went back, there was a possibility that someone from her past would know and word would get back to her parents. She had changed her last name to Spartan, something that wasn't that hard. It was an alias, of course, but she knew what would happen if anyone found out about her past.

They took the corners of the mountain with ease and when the straights came up she would gun it. She could hear her daughter laughing through the helmet she wore. These days, she and Hannah rarely had anything to do with no one on the slopes. The retreat, where she lived and worked, was slow during the summer months, but it always kept her busy in the winter or when a corporation wanted to get away from the city for a weekend.

Hannah was five now, had turned five just the other day and she had promised to take her out on the slopes. The little girl loved snowmobiling the most. She had tried to ski and snowboard but was never satisfied. Jenna could see it in Hannah's eyes when they were on the snowmobile that this was where she was meant to be. She only wished that her daughter could have tried surfing. She knew that if they were to ever leave the Retreat, it would be because she was tired of hiding and being away from what she really loved and who she really loved. She kept the engagement ring on a chain around her neck along with the cross she'd bought shortly after Hannah had been born.

The couple that had taken her in and shown her the ropes of running a Mountain Retreat had died almost two years ago and left her everything. They hadn't had any kids and they didn't have any siblings. They had told her that she was the closest thing to a daughter that they had ever had, except maybe the occasional wolf that wandered onto the property. That was also something that had drawn her to the Retreat in the first place. The wild animals of the Sierra Nevada's seemed drawn to the Retreat because they knew that it was a safe place to stay out of harm's way when hunters were out and about.

When Jenna stopped the snowmobile, she helped Hannah off and the two went to play in the snow. She'd brought her camera, which was always on her, something she kept on her now that she had a daughter. She helped Hannah take her helmet off but instead of putting it on the ground, she held it under her arm and Jenna snapped the picture. Hannah looked more and more like Marty everyday and though she lived with her mother, she looked little like her. If she ever saw Marty again, she would have to explain why she left and introduce him to his daughter.

After playing around in the snow and making snow angels and snow people and taking more pictures, Jenna helped Hannah put her helmet back on and put her on the snowmobile then started the sled and turned around, heading back home where they would make some dinner and get ready to watch the new Tinkerbell movie. That was something else that Hannah loved. She simply could not get enough of the Tinkerbell movies.

_**More to come in the next chapter…**_

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	3. A Face From The Past

**A Face From The Past:**

**The Retreat:**

Hannah was running around the Retreat, which was about to get busy this weekend. A group of federal agents were headed up for some much needed vacation. Since Jenna was the only one around during the summer, she had to call in some help for the weekend. The group had asked that any and all activities be available and that they would be up sometime that Friday afternoon. They had been in the middle of some kind of case but it had gone cold after a few days. They were looking to get a vacation in before going back and tackling the case again.

Jenna was setting up the kitchen and getting all the food that the group would be consuming into the walk-in cooler which kept everything nice and cold while no food was being prepared. One of her employees walked in with Hannah in her arms. The girl looked like she was about ready to cry.

"What happened Kale?"

"Someone walked into the Retreat and yelled at her for making so much noise. We stood up for her saying she had every right to play where she was and that she wasn't harming anything seeing as there were no guests at the moment."

"Where is this person?"

"He's out by the front desk. He looks like he might be from the party that was headed up here today, but I don't really know. He pissed me off that's for sure Jen."

"Yea, he's pissed me off too. Can you take Hannah to your room till I come and get her? You are staying here while we have guests right?"

"When you call and say we have guests, I always stay Jen, you know that. Anyways, I broke up with my boyfriend last week so if you'll have me, I'll stay on even after the federal agents leave. I could use a break from the city life anyways."

"That's no problem Kale; just make sure you keep your room clean. I'll be back as soon as I can. Her backpack should have her Tinkerbell movies in it along with her portable DVD player. And feel free to take what you need from the kitchen to feed her."

"We'll see you in a while Jen. Come on Hannah, we're going to go watch Tinkerbell and get you some snacks."

The suggestion that they would watch movies and snacks cheered Hannah up right quick and she clung to Kale as the young woman took hold of her, grabbed some snack and Hannah's backpack and headed for the room that she normally stayed in while at the Retreat. Jenna walked out to the Front Desk and looked at the man who stood in front of her.

"Can I help you sir?"

"Yes, my name is Mr. Callen, I'm here to get the keys for the rooms me and my colleagues will be staying in while we are here. And you should probably watch out for the kid that is running around here."

"So you are the one that yelled at my daughter?"

"Sorry mam, I didn't know she was your daughter. I thought she belonged to one of your staffers."

"It's alright Mr. Callen; I'm Jenna by the way, Jenna Spartan. How long will you and your colleagues be staying?"

"We figured just the weekend but if something comes up we'll have to leave."

"Yes, your director mentioned something about a case that went cold. I am sorry for that, but I do hope you have some fun up here. Okay, here are the keys to your rooms, you can pay your bill when you leave and all activities are at your use. My daughter and I are headed home for the evening, but Kale will be around to answer any questions. I do hope you have some fun this weekend. I expect my employees to help out with anything and if you want to learn how to ride the snowmobiles, well that is my specialty."

"Thanks, and we'll see you later. I know my partner wanted to try it out and I think the others were leaning towards trying them as well."

"Well then, I will leave you to it and send Kale out shortly."

"Thank you Ms. Spartan."

"Call me Jenna."

Jenna let the Agent leave and she headed to Kale's room. She let Kale know that the group was there and that she was taking Hannah home to get some dinner in her. She also told her that if the group needed anything that she was in charge until the next day when she would be back to teach the group to snowmobile. Other than that, the cooks knew what to cook for dinner and Kale left to talk to the rest of the staff. They were used to Kale being in charge when Jenna was off with Hannah or out and about with customers.

Jenna got her daughter suited up in her snow gear and hen suited up herself. There snowmobile was just outside, away from the others and that's what they used to get to and from the cabin down the hill and the Retreat. With their normal shoes in Jenna's backpack and Hannah's backpack on her back, they headed for the door. Jenna always brought an extra backpack to put their normal clothes in so that they didn't overheat when they were working in the Retreat.

She headed out the door just as the group was headed in. Hannah was laughing; it had started to snow again. She thought she had caught a glimpse of Marty but maybe it was just the light bouncing off the sun as she moved. The group let them leave and watched as Jenna put Hannah on the snowmobile after putting her helmet on. The little girl held onto the middle of the handles like normal and looked over at the group looking at them. She noticed someone that looked like her but didn't want to say anything, too happy that it was snowing again. Jenna put her helmet on, started the snowmobile, got on and headed down the hill. She had started out slow, but when Hannah had hit her, she went faster.

By the time they got home and the snowmobile was under the carport, it was snowing hard. They hurried in the side door and into the mud room where they got changed into normal clothes and headed into the kitchen. Hannah went to her room and put her backpack away before coming back out to sit at the table. She watched as her mother made some macaroni and cheese with hotdogs and chili then ate what was set in front of her. When dinner was over, they went into the living room where Jenna read Hannah a book from the bookshelf. After the marking the book at the fifth chapter, Jenna tucked Hannah into her bed and then went to sleep herself. They needed to be up in the morning early so that they could make it to the Retreat before breakfast was served.

**Questions:**

As Jenna and Hannah got ready the next morning around seven, they packed what they would need for the snowmobile ride up the mountain. They would be taking the group out that day and would have to pack some food and first aid supplies just in case but they knew that it would be a fun day. As they headed into the mud room to get changed into their snow gear, Jenna got a call from Kale saying that breakfast was being made and would be ready to serve once they got up the hill. Jenna thanked Kale and hung up, zipping her phone in her pocket before putting Hannah's helmet on and putting her on the sled. She put her own helmet on, started the sled, got on and backed out of the carport with ease before turning around and heading up the hill to the Retreat.

When they got into the lobby, the group of federal agents were sitting around the table with the rest of the staff that hadn't eaten yet. Jenna moved to an empty room near the Front Desk where the staff put all of their snow gear before getting into their normal work clothes. They got out of their snow gear and put it in the dresser drawer designated for them and then headed out into the dining room. Hannah saw Kale sitting at one of the tables and ran to her, knowing that Kale had some food for her.

"Hey Jen, the group decided to eat early. The cooks are making the food for the trip up the mountain at the moment and I figured you guys would want to eat before taking the group up the mountain."

"Thanks Kale. How'd things go last night?"

"They went okay. Everyone was real nice. They kept asking some weird questions. Especially that guy over there; I think they said his name was Deeks or something like that."

"Deeks, are you sure that was his name?"

"Pretty sure, they never really used his first name, just his last name. What's wrong?"

"Can you watch Hannah real quick? I'm going to go check something."

"Sure, no problem."

Jenna let the dining room and headed for the Front Desk. Apparently she wasn't the only one that wanted to check something out. When someone grabbed her arm, she hesitated, not wanting to look at whoever was holding her arm.

"Excuse, me, but could you please tell me who our instructor is going to be today?"

"And you would be?" _Jenna asked turning towards the young woman._

"I'm Kensi Blye. My partner Deeks wanted to know who was going to teach us how to snowmobile and take us up the mountain, just so he could get on their good side."

"Well you can tell him that I will be taking you guys. Me and my daughter know all the trails and will be taking you up today. Um, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"No, go ahead."

"Your partner, Deeks is it, his first name wouldn't happen to be Marty would it?"

"Yea it would. How do you know him?"

"I think I have some explaining to do. Just not in front of everyone. If you could meet me in the pool area in about a half hour, I can explain how I know him."

"Sure, no problem, we'll meet you there."

"Thank you Ms. Blye."

"Call me Kensi, that's what all my friends call me."

"Alright, thank you Kensi."

Kensi headed back to the table, looking over her shoulder at their host as she went. There was something familiar about the woman, but she couldn't put her finger on it. They had come up here to possibly get a better point of view on the case that they were working and now this. Jenna walked back into the dining room and picked Hannah up. She walked back to Kale's room with Hannah in her arms and Kale following behind. When Kale opened the door, Jenna asked her to watch her, that she had to talk to the group before they went out for the day. Kale said that she would and to just call her on the radio when she was ready for Hannah to be in her snow gear.

**And Answers:**

Jenna was in the pool area when the group walked in. She was looking out the glass door, towards the sledding hills when Kensi walked up to her.

"Ms. Spartan, we're all here. Now can you please tell me how you know Deeks?"

"Wait, what? Kensi, I don't know this woman. I've never met her in my life."

"Actually Marty," _I said turning towards the group,_ "you have."

"Jenna?"

"Guilty. If I had known you were going to be in the group, I would have had someone else take you guys up the mountain but Hannah is looking forward to going up today."

"But, how, you supposed to be missing."

"I didn't want to hurt you Marty. You were asking too many questions about my family and I knew that the lie I told you wasn't going to hold out for much longer. And someone from my past showed up in town and started to follow my every move. I had to get out before the rest of my family found me. I'm sorry for what I did, I truly am, but I saw no other way."

"Wait, so how do you two know each other?" _Callen asked._

"Guys, meet Jenna Spaltan, my missing fiancée. She disappeared five years ago."

"So that little girl I yelled at yesterday, how old is she?"

"She turned five on Monday."

"Five, which would mean that you were pregnant when you left? How could you Jenna?"

"I wanted to come back and tell you but I didn't know how. I knew that my case had eventually gone cold because people stopped asking questions. Honestly Marty, I thought you would move on with your life. Forget about me and move on."

"How was I supposed to forget about you Jenna? We were supposed to get married in less than a month. Did you honestly think that I couldn't keep you safe?"

"If you knew what my family was capable of, you would have understood why I left."

"So this person you recognized from your past, who was he?" _Sam asked._

"He was my brother. He and I were always on good terms and he was honestly the only person I told where I was going. When he caught up with me, two days before I decided to go 'camping' he told me that I needed to get out of town because the family was going to be moving out to California and living there permanently. He told me that he would do his best to keep our parents from finding out about my engagement and about Marty but that if it came down to it, he'd have to tell Marty the truth. Obviously it never came to that or you would have found me a lot sooner."

"So what do we do now?" _Kensi asked._

"And Hannah, who's the father?"

"You are Marty, you're her father. I was going to tell you that I was pregnant on Christmas but my brother caught up to me and told me I needed to leave and soon. She's a really great girl, she even looks like you. She's got your passion to try new things and everything. Look I understand if you don't want to go up the mountain today and I understand if you'll never forgive me, but just think of Hannah, hang out with her today. If she asks why you look like her, you can tell her your my brother or something."

"What have you told her about her father?" _Nell asked speaking up. She and Eric had just been listening in on the conversation, not saying anything._

"The people that took me in when I initially got to the mountain knew about my past and said nothing. When I had Hannah, I debated telling her about her father because I didn't know if she would want to leave the mountains. She's seen the picture of the two of us together, at the beach house and she's seen the engagement ring but she's never really asked. I figured I would cross that bridge when it came."

"I would like to get to know her. And as for the ride up the mountain, I don't see why we shouldn't go for it. I mean I've always wanted to learn how to snowmobile, just never had the chance to do it until now."

"Do you own this place?" _Eric asked._

"Nona and Geepaw left it to me in their _Will_ when they died. That's what they told me I should call them. It was easier then saying their last name, which to this day I still can't pronounce."

"When did they die?" _Callen asked._

"Two years ago. It was an extremely rough winter, in fact they were taking care of Hannah because I was stuck up on the mountain, unable to get down. Kale ended up picking Hannah up one night for a sleepover with her little sister at her mother's house in town and when we all got back in the morning, they were holding each other. They died holding each other in their own home. I'm just sad that I couldn't be there for them. But at least they died with smiles on their faces."

"Well, that's once peaceful way to die." _Sam said._

"I think it's time we get into our snow gear and head outside. We have a long day ahead of us."

_**More to come in next chapter…**_

_**Please REVIEW…**_


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